Floral Collage Canvas

So, you've accumulated a load of patterned papers (either physical or digital), but you have no idea what to do with them.  At least, that's a problem that I have. I'm not a prolific card maker, nor do I scrapbook, but I can't resist a pretty patterned paper or an interesting background texture.  So what to do?  Collage, that's what!

I tend to overthink things and spent ages trying to decide what to collage.  In my mind I felt like it needed to be some grand, artistic piece.  But it really didn't have to be so complicated.   In the end I went with a simple floral layout inspired by an embroidery design.

I used papers from my digital stash, but any papers would work.  This would actually be a great project for using up paper scraps.  I chose a newsprint, a pink paper with a a slight texture for the flowers, two different green papers for the stems and leaves, yellow paper for the flower centres and a lovely bluey-purple paper for some berries.  I've listed links to all the papers used at the end of the post.

Step-by-step

1.  I printed out three sheets using one of the designs in the Old Newspaper Textures set.  The original file is a 12 x 12 sheet and the text was quite large.  So I resized it a couple of times to make the print smaller.  I tore pieces from all three sheets and stuck them down on the canvas board trying to get a nice mix between the different text sizes.

2.  Using the pink sheet I cut a strip about one inch wide and then cut about 30 petals shapes.

3.  I arranged the petals on to the canvas board to create 3 flower heads.

4.  I cut thin stems from one of the green papers and various sized leaves from the other green paper, then arranged them onto the board.

5.  I cut a few small circles for berries from the blue-purple paper and three yellow circles for the flower centres and added them to the piece as well.

At this point the collage was finished, but I felt like it didn't stand out from the background enough. So I went around the edges of the petals, leaves and berries with my Derwent Inktense pencils to help lift the composition off the page.  I think that I might have overworked it a bit, but it does seem to have done the job and I still like the end result.  (Original on the left, "enhanced" on the right.)

  

Tutorial

Watch the process video on my YouTube channel.

SUPPLIES

5 x 7" Canvas Boards  (you could also use scrap cardboard)

Matte Medium (Mod Podge Matte [Europe], Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium [Europe], Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium [US])

Derwent Inktense Pencils

A2 Self-Healing Cutting Mat

Backgrounds and digital papers:

Old Newspaper Textures

Scattered Gold Shimmers in Green

Glop Wallpaper 08 (sample freebie available with fewer backgrounds) [apple green paper]

Glop Wallpaper 16 (sample freebie available with fewer backgrounds) [pink paper]

Pattys Desert Strips 3 Bundle (sample freebie available with fewer backgrounds) [blue-purple paper]

Glitter Digital Papers